English in Japan in the Era of Globalization

Transcription

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10.1057/9780230306196preview - English in Japan in the Era of Globalization, Edited by Philip
Seargeant
10.1057/9780230306196preview - English in Japan in the Era of Globalization, Edited by Philip Seargeant
Also by Philip Seargeant
THE IDEA OF ENGLISH IN JAPAN:
Ideology and the Evolution of a Global Language
English in Japan in the Era
of Globalization
Philip Seargeant
The Open University, UK
Edited by
Selection and editorial matter © Philip Seargeant 2011
Chapters © their individual authors 2011
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First published 2011 by
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English in Japan in the era of globalization / edited by Philip Seargeant.
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1. English language—Study and teaching—Japanese speakers.
2. English philology—Study and teaching—Japan. 3. English language—
Japan. 4. English language—Globalization. I. Seargeant, Philip. II. Title.
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List of Figures and Tables
vii
Notes on the Contributors
viii
Introduction: English in Japan in the Era of Globalization
Philip Seargeant
1
Part I English in the Education System
1 Elite Discourses of Globalization in Japan: the Role
of English
Mai Yamagami and James W. Tollefson
15
2 ‘Not Everyone Can Be a Star’: Students’ and Teachers’
Beliefs about English Teaching in Japan
Aya Matsuda
38
3 Parallel Universes: Globalization and Identity in
English Language Teaching at a Japanese University
Alison Stewart and Masuko Miyahara
60
4 The Native Speaker English Teacher and the
Politics of Globalization in Japan
Yvonne Breckenridge and Elizabeth J. Erling
80
5 Immigration, Diversity and Language Education in
Japan: toward a Glocal Approach to Teaching English
Ryuko Kubota
101
Part II English in Society and Culture
6 English as an International Language and
‘Japanese English’
Yasukata Yano
7 The Position of English for a New Sector of
‘Japanese’ Youths: Mixed-Ethnic Girls’ Constructions
of Linguistic and Ethnic Identities
Laurel Kamada
8 The Ideal Speaker of Japanese English as Portrayed
in ‘Language Entertainment’ Television
Andrew Moody and Yuko Matsumoto
125
143
166
v
Contents
vi Contents
187
Index
205
9 The Symbolic Meaning of Visual English in
the Social Landscape of Japan
Philip Seargeant
List of Figures and Tables
Figure
9
Tables
4.1 Participants in the study
9.1
88
List of participants
194
vii
0.1 ‘Yes We Kan’ slogan T-shirt
Yvonne Breckenridge is an English for Academic Purposes instructor
at the University of Alberta, Canada. She has taught EAP in Japan and
South Korea, and has been involved in teacher education projects in
Canada and Japan. Her research interests focus on identity and discourse and how these manifest themselves in interactions between
students, teachers and the curriculum. She is currently working on a
research project involving literacy development and technology.
Elizabeth J. Erling is a Lecturer in English Language Teaching at the
Open University, UK. Her interests are in ELT professional development,
English for academic purposes, world Englishes and language policy.
She is editing with Philip Seargeant a forthcoming collection on English
and international development, and has published papers in journals
such as World Englishes, Language Policy and Innovations in Language
Learning and Teaching.
Laurel Kamada is a Senior Lecturer at Tohoku University, Japan, and
has publications in: bilingualism and multiculturalism in Japan;
gender/ethnic studies; marginalized (hybrid and gendered) identities in
Japan; masculinity; and theoretical and methodological discourse analytic approaches. She serves on the editorial board of the Japan Journal
of Multilingualism and Multiculturalism and is on the Advisory Council
of the International Gender and Language Association. Her most recent
book is Hybrid identities and adolescent girls: being ‘half’ in Japan (2010).
Ryuko Kubota is a Professor in the Department of Language and
Literacy Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of British
Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Her areas of specialization include second/
foreign language teacher education and critical applied linguistics. She is
an editor of Race, culture, and identities in second language: exploring critically engaged practice (2009) and has published a number of articles and
book chapters.
Aya Matsuda is Assistant Professor of English at Arizona State University,
USA. Her research interests include the use of English as an international
language, and the linguistic and pedagogical implications of the global
spread of English. Her work has appeared in various books and journals
including English Today, TESOL Quarterly and World Englishes.
viii
Notes on the Contributors ix
Masuko Miyahara teaches in the College of Liberal Arts at the International Christian University (ICU) in Tokyo, Japan. Her interests are in
the area of reading in second language learning, autonomy and language
education, and identity and its co-relation with language development.
She has published a number of articles on these subjects.
Andrew Moody is an Associate Professor of English at the University of
Macau, China, where he teaches sociolinguistics. His research interests
include varieties of world Englishes and the role of English in popular
culture, with articles in American Speech, World Englishes, Asian Englishes
and English Today. Currently he is co-editing a collection of essays entitled English and Asian pop culture.
Philip Seargeant is Lecturer in Applied Linguistics in the Centre for
Language and Communication, The Open University, UK. He is author
of The idea of English in Japan: ideology and the evolution of a global language (2009). He has also published several papers in journals such as
Language Policy, World Englishes, Language Sciences and Language &
Communication.
Alison Stewart teaches at Gakushuin University, Japan. She has published articles on communities of practice in writing instruction and
teacher development, mediating authentic texts, and multicultural
practice in Japanese university classrooms.
James W. Tollefson is Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington
and Professor in the Department of Media, Communication and Culture, the
Graduate School of Public Policy and Social Research, and the Institute for
Educational Research and Service at the International Christian University
in Tokyo, Japan. He has published 9 books and more than 70 articles on
language policy, language education and the politics of language.
Mai Yamagami is a doctoral student in the School of Journalism and
Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, USA.
Her research on discourse, language policy and political communication
appears in Japan Studies, the Language Research Bulletin, the Encyclopedia
of Applied Linguistics and elsewhere.
Yuko Matsumoto is a Lecturer of Business Communication at the
University of Macau, China. She has published in Human Communication
Research and Asian Englishes. In addition to research on English in Japanese
popular culture, she is also conducting a study of the heritage Japanese
expatriate community in Macau, exploring issues of acculturation,
language and cultural maintenance and loss within the community.
Yasukata Yano is Professor Emeritus of Applied Linguistics at Waseda
University, Japan. He received an MA in TEFL from the University of
Hawaii and a PhD in linguistics from the University of Wisconsin. His
research interests include language teaching, sociolinguistics and English
as an international language. He has taught at Columbia University,
the University of Chicago and Waseda University; has been a Visiting
Fellow at the University of London and a Visiting Colleague at the
University of Hawaii; and has authored and edited around 40 linguistics
and ELT-related papers and books.
x
Introduction: English in Japan in
the Era of Globalization
English in a global context
The subject of this book is the role played by the English language in
contemporary Japan. The nine chapters of the book examine this role
from various perspectives and in various domains, and taken together
they represent a wide-ranging survey of the linguistic, social and cultural issues that arise from the use of English in Japan. A major focus
for many of the chapters is the education system, where the teaching
and learning of English, as well as policies and planning about English,
operate as a primary means of mediation between the language and
society. With English traditionally having the status of a predominantly
‘foreign’ language in Japan, the majority of the population have their
first and most sustained encounter with it via formal education, and
thus the practices and debates that are current in pedagogical circles
have a significant influence on the state and status of the language in
wider society. Other chapters examine the role of English in broadcast
and print media, and in the public space of rural and urban Japan. In
each case, a central concern is the way in which the language and the
particular context under examination converge, as well as the social and
cultural significance that results from this convergence.
There is a further context for all these examinations of the subject,
however, and this is the overarching concept of globalization. Although
for each perspective and in each domain, the immediate context is
Japan itself (as a society, a culture, and a political entity), there is also
always this further context which exerts a pressure on the way that
English exists within the country. In the case of each scenario examined in the various chapters, the debates about English are played
out in the shadow of English’s status as a global language. In each case,
1
Philip Seargeant
the relationship between English and Japan also involves implicit or
explicit consideration of the relationships that the English language and
the Japanese nation have towards current social and political developments that are motivated by the forces of globalization. All nine chapters therefore examine language practices in the country as they occur
at the intersection of three fundamental concepts: (1) the Japanese
nation state and/or Japanese cultural identity; (2) the English language
as it exists as both form and idea; and (3) the processes and promises
of globalization.
Over the past few decades the study of English has increasingly had to
adopt an approach which takes account of the broadening global identity that the language has developed. On various levels, and in various
different ways, the English language today exhibits the trace of globalization in the forms it takes, the functions it is put to, and the attitudes
that people hold towards it. Be it at the lexicogrammatical or pragmatic
level – where contact with other languages resulting from global migration flows or transnational communication networks produces new
varieties, new communicative strategies and new style repertoires – or
at the policy level – where governmental attitudes towards English
contribute to development agendas and international relations programmes – the language as it exists around the world is a product of the
way the social world exists today. English today is not only a means of
communication for communities that operate across national borders
or are brought together by the possibilities of new communication
technology; it is also the result of these new and changing patterns of
social organization.
The changes in the status of the language – and especially the shift
from what was predominantly a national language (with a limited
number of dominant standards) to one which is now distinctly global
(and manifestly multiplex) have led to the need for a reconceptualization of the language. These changes have resulted in the need for several
aspects of the study of the language to be re-evaluated, and several more
to be newly taken into account; and the shifts and developments in the
discipline of English language studies over the past few decades bear
witness to the various stages in this reconceptualization (see Bolton,
2006 for a summary of the recent history of the evolving concerns of
the discipline). What is becoming increasingly apparent from research
around the language is that, although influential models such as
Kachru’s Three Circles of English (1992) offer a way of theorizing the
English language and its global spread in toto, the diversity in form,
function and attitude to world English is such that it needs now to be
2
analysed as situated social practice – i.e. by means of a type of almost
ethnographic analysis that goes beyond a priori categories such as EFL,
ESL and EIL, and instead investigates the variegated roles played by the
language in any one specific context.
It is within this refining of the concerns of the discipline of world
Englishes that Japan presents a particularly compelling case study for
the examination of the actuality of English as an international language. As is often noted by commentators, both individuals and institutions within Japan exhibit an intense fascination towards English
(McVeigh, 2002), and yet despite the strong visual and conceptual presence the language occupies in society (Seargeant, 2009), it has no
official status, nor, in relative terms, do the majority of citizens require
any particular fluency in it for their everyday lives (Yano, this volume).
English in some form or at some symbolic level has, however, become
a significant part of everyday life in Japan, and the aim of this book is
to offer insights into the ways in which this occurs, and to look also at
the consequences this is having for Japanese society and culture.
English in Japan: history and contact
The chapters in the book look predominantly at the state and status of
English in present-day Japan. Yet present-day Japan is a product of its
history, and the nature and functions that English has in the country
are in part determined (or at least influenced) by this history. This
history has produced a specific linguistic profile for the country in
terms of both the attitude taken by Japanese institutions and people
towards English and other foreign languages, and the position that the
Japanese language occupies in the national psyche. As such, an understanding of this history acts as an important context for any study of
English in Japan today.
Unlike many of its Asian neighbours, Japan does not have a history of
colonial rule by a Western power, and though it did undergo a period
of US occupation after the Second World War, English was never
introduced into the infrastructure of the country in the way it was in
places such as Singapore, Hong Kong, or the countries of the Indian subcontinent. The history of English in Japan is mostly condensed into the
century and a half since the Meiji Restoration of 1868. There were a few,
mostly isolated, incidents of contact prior to this, beginning with what
is the first recorded encounter between the Japanese and the English
language in 1600, when the English sailor William Adams was washed
up on the shores of Kyushu and ended up settling in the country and
Philip Seargeant 3
becoming a chief advisor to the Tokugawa shogunate (Ike, 1995). It was
only a few decades after this, however, that the Tokugawa government
instigated what would become two and a half centuries of self-imposed
isolation (the sakoku period), during which contact with the wider
world became severely regulated. During this period, when the only
authorized contact with European nations was conducted via the traders of the Dutch community who inhabited the small artificial island
of Dejima on the coastline of Nagasaki, scholars of European languages
in Japan concentrated predominantly on Dutch. It was not until 1853,
and Commodore Perry’s arrival in Japan as part of a mission to gain
trading concessions for the United States, that significant international
relations were resumed. The signing of the Kanagawa Treaty in the year
after Perry’s arrival marked the ‘opening up’ of Japan, and this in turn
was followed shortly by the programme of modernization that the new
government embarked on in the wake of the Meiji Restoration. The
latter years of the nineteenth century thus saw a radical shift in Japan’s
relationship with the international community, and this had notable
implications for the status of foreign languages in the country.
Ike (1995) identifies this post-restoration era as one of the three
major transitional periods for the teaching of English in Japan in the
modern history of the country. A prime reason for this is that part of
the modernization programme involved an influx of Western teachers,
many of whom were English speakers. It was this period that first led,
in Yano’s opinion (this volume), to the general fascination with English
that persists to this day in the country. An indication of the importance
accorded to the language during that period can be seen in a proposal
made in 1872 by the statesman and educational reformer Arinori Mori
to replace Japanese with English as the national language (Swale, 2000).
Among the reasons that motivated this proposal were Mori’s beliefs
that English had the status of an international language while Japanese
did not, and that written Japanese was a legacy of Chinese imperialism.
However, as with later proposals to adopt English as an official language
in Japan, nothing came of it, and by the end of the nineteenth century
a backlash against the English language had begun. Key incidents here
include the decision by the Ministry of Education to install Japanese
rather than English as the medium of instruction at the newly established Tokyo University, and Mori’s assassination at the hands of an
ultranationalist.
The second of the major transitional periods for English in Japan was
the American occupation after the Second World War. During the war
itself, the learning of English had been discouraged, and the Ministry of
4
Education greatly reduced English language provision in the curriculum
(Koike and Tanaka, 1995). But with the seven years of American occupation, and the reforms to the education system that were introduced
with the new constitution in 1947, English again became an important
school subject – and though it was in name still only an elective class,
in practice it was all but obligatory.
The decades since the war have seen further developments in the prominence given to the teaching of English. The 1970s saw the formation of
several regional English Language Education Associations established to
improve teaching within the country (Hoshiyama, 1978; Omura, 1978).
This was followed in the 1980s by the third major transitional period for
English language teaching which comprised the reforms to the education
system proposed during Yasuhiro Nakasone’s premiership (1982–87), and
linked, by both government and business, to the programme of kokusaika, or internationalization, which defined that particular era. These
reforms were introduced over the following two decades, most noticeably in the Course of Study documents (the equivalent of a national curriculum) which lay out the syllabus for primary and secondary education
as prescribed by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and
Technology (MEXT). Course of Study documents have been issued at
intervals of about a decade since they were first introduced in 1947 with
the new education system. In terms of the history of English language
education, it is the Reform Acts of 1989 and 2002 which are considered to
contain the most notable innovations, and in which a specifically communicative approach to ELT was instigated. It is in these last few decades,
therefore, that a shift has occurred in educational approaches to the language, as the traditional grammar–translation method of teaching that
was adopted in the Meiji period as a means of importing and processing
information from foreign cultures, has been challenged by the privileging
of communicative approaches which are so prevalent in contemporary
TESOL orthodoxy in the West. The significance and implications of this
approach, and the consequences of the continued foregrounding of
English in both the curriculum (most recently with the plans to introduce
compulsory English classes for elementary school students) and more
generally in public life, are all topics which are addressed in the substantive chapters of the book.
National boundaries and globalized perspectives
A condensed historical summary of this sort relies upon a variety
of presuppositions, not least those that concern the country whose
Philip Seargeant 5
history is being summarized. Just as the term ‘English’ refers to multiple
and diverse linguistic behaviours, so the name ‘Japan’ has a plurality
of possible referents. Throughout the book, nationhood is the allencompassing point of identification, yet in many cases nationhood
is also a subject for analysis. Each chapter takes as its context the
country and culture of Japan – but in each chapter this broad context
is approached by means of something more specific. A primary focus
in many of the chapters is patterns of beliefs or behaviours relating to
the language, but the samples of people whose beliefs or behaviours
are surveyed are necessarily limited, and thus can only be indicative of
trends within society. To say that English plays a particular role in Japan
is, more accurately, to say that for a certain section of the population
living within Japan – or of the population who identify themselves as
Japanese citizens – English is perceived or used in a particular way. In
other words, the property of generalization that language naturally
makes use of should not be mistaken for the totalizing fallacy which
uncritically deals in nations and cultures as if they were stable categories. Indeed, one theme which emerges from many of the studies in the
book is the way in which the category of the nation and the concept
of national culture are constructed by means of a discourse in which
debates over the status of English play a significant part. In examining
the role of English in Japan, therefore, the book offers critical analysis
both of what is understood by the term ‘English’ in this context, but
also of how the concept of Japan and of Japanese culture is constructed
in contemporary debates about the English language.
Just as the concepts ‘English’ and ‘Japan’ can be problematic, so
too can the third element of the triad. Globalization has been a much
used – and possibly overused – term across a range of disciplines in
the last two decades. Indeed, the motivation for using the concept as
a framing device for the book is precisely this popularity: in Japan,
as elsewhere, a high-profile discourse of globalization exists both in
political debate and in the popular imagination. And as Yamagami
and Tollefson (this volume) illustrate with their survey of promotional
campaigns for higher education institutions, it appears that the concept
of globalization has taken over from the previously ubiquitous ‘internationalization’ (kokusaika) in certain domains. The studies in the book
therefore approach the term as one which is established as a significant
concept in the contexts the book focuses upon, and part of their investigation is to examine why it is that educational institutions, political
organizations and the media use the concept in the way they do. To
talk of the globalized era in Japan, therefore, is in part to talk about the
6
period defined by a discourse which promotes ideas of the global as of
great importance.
Yet the term also has analytic value as a theoretical concept. Of particular interest for the discussion here is linguistic globalization – that is,
the ways in which the forces of globalization are influenced by issues
related to language, and the ways in which language is affected by the
forces of globalization. Linguistic globalization can be characterized
as the ways in which language practices are tied up with the social
changes which occur as a result of the technologies which have brought
about a collapse in traditional orientations to time and space. There are
a range of different domains in which social changes can occur, from
economics to travel to labour to culture. In each of these domains, new
social structures develop to allow for the rapid flow of information,
finance and people across the globe; and these social structures are both
enabled by, and have an effect upon, the use of language.
In different contexts, the products of globalization are likely to vary
greatly, so in talking of the concept in general terms it is worth thinking of it primarily as a complex of processes rather than the products
that result from these processes. An initial premise about linguistic
globalization is that the social determines the representational. That
is to say, language use and linguistic forms are a result, and therefore
reflective, of changes occurring in society. As studies in language variation show, language use within communities develops in such a way
that broad systematic sociolinguistic patterns emerge which come to
be identified with the communities which use them. There is, then,
both a structural and ideological aspect to sociolinguistic variation, and
changes in the dynamics in society will affect both these aspects. A prime
example of this is the status of the nation state and national languages
today. One of the effects of globalization has been to enable communities to develop and maintain themselves with great ease across national
borders, and thus the privileged position of the nation state in cultural
identity politics is not as clear-cut as it once was. The English language
is particularly implicated in these shifts in social organization. Its spread
around the globe means that it can act both as an international lingua
franca enabling transnational communication, but also as a marker of
cultural identity for national or regional communities. It is at once the
symbolic face of globalization – a language which has spread because of
globalizing technologies and recent geopolitical history; a language
which is promoted as a way of taking advantage of the economic
possibilities of globalization – but it is also a language which exhibits
far greater variety and diversity precisely because of its uptake around
Philip Seargeant 7
the globe; its prevalence is not accompanied by a static and singular
standard, but is manifest in its multiplicity.
An example of some of the ways in which processes of globalization
produce a use of language which is a product both of local cultural meanings and influences from a broader transnational or global culture can be
seen in Figure 0.1. This is a T-shirt design that was produced and sold in
Japan in June 2010 when Naoto Kan replaced Yukio Hatoyama as leader of
the Democratic Party of Japan and thus as Prime Minister. A first, straightforward point of note is that the T-shirt is emblazoned with a slogan which
is written in English, but that is likely aimed specifically at a domestic
Japanese population. It is, in other words, a product of the global spread
of English, and an example of the language being used not for lingua
franca purposes but as part of a localized semiotic repertoire.
The slogan includes a bilingual pun exploiting the homophonic possibilities of the new Prime Minister’s family name ( is transliterated
into the Roman alphabet as ‘Kan’), and the intertextual associations this
sets up with a campaign slogan from the 2008 US elections (the ubiquitous chant of ‘Yes we can’). Although a seemingly simple piece of word
play, this pun does in fact exploit complex linguistic and cultural associations: its interpretation relies on cultural knowledge which is both
specifically local to Japan (Kan’s succession to the Japanese premiership), and to events which received extensive international coverage
and thus could qualify as a sort of ‘global’ culture (Barack Obama’s 2008
presidential campaign). The use of English in this context is at once
a reflection of the original slogan, an index of the ‘international’ nature
of the intertextual cultural reference (in so far as English often operates as a symbol of internationalism in Japan), and also, of course, the
linguistic form which makes possible the word play. What is of further
note is that the producers of the T-shirt would appear to assume in
their target market a level of proficiency that allows for an appreciation both of the cultural references and of the English language pun
which exploits these references. In other words, they assume in their
target market a certain level of both English and global cultural literacy.
An interpretation of the three-word English phrase without this rich
contextual knowledge would be close to meaningless, and thus a purely
linguistic analysis of the utterance could not capture any of the references or allusions which transform what is a simple phrase of rhetorical
assertion into something that has specific cultural meaning. An example
of this sort, therefore, indicates ways in which linguistic globalization
results not merely in the adoption of a particular language as a means
of international communication, nor solely in the development of new
8
Figure 0.1 ‘Yes We Kan’ slogan T-shirt
varieties of a language through contact with other languages, but also
in the adoption, appropriation and recasting of English language forms
for use in semiotic practices which draw together a mixture of local and
global resources in the construction of context-specific meanings.
In conclusion, therefore, and as was noted above, the processes which
are referred to under the term ‘globalization’ do not result in uniform
situations the world over, and for this reason dedicated studies of individual contexts and communities are vitally important. Processes of
linguistic globalization and English language contact in Japan result
in issues, scenarios and linguistic patterns which are unique to the
Japanese situation, yet at the same time share a similar architecture and
pose similar challenges to the influence of English elsewhere across the
globe. And it is this blend of specificity and generality which the studies
in this book address in their analysis of the Japanese context.
The structure of the book
The book consists of nine differently authored chapters arranged in two
parts: ‘English in the Education System’ and ‘English in Society and
Philip Seargeant 9
Culture’. The section on ‘English in the Education System’ focuses on
the relationship between the English language and educational policy
and practice. Chapters look at the positioning of English within the
curriculum, debates over language pedagogy and different educational
strategies, and the attitudes and expectations of students and education professionals who have an investment in the language. A key
focus for many of these chapters is language education policy and its
relationship to questions of national and cultural identity, of international relations, and of the tension between global and local concerns
in early twenty-first-century society. As was seen in the brief overview
of the history of English in Japan, the majority of key incidents that
have helped shape the relationship of Japanese society and English
are related to education policy, and thus the education system has
provided the arena in which many of the major debates about the
language have been played out.
The second section of the book, ‘English in Society and Culture’,
then examines the uses and meanings English has in popular culture
and the public sphere (especially the ‘linguistic landscape’), the way
culture constructs particular concepts of English and draws associations
between the language and other cultural factors, and the relationship the
language has to cultural and ethnic identity. The division between the two
sections is not entirely clear-cut, however, and educational themes persist in Part II, just as social and cultural issues have already been touched
upon in Part I.
While I do not wish to prejudice the chapters which follow this
introduction, the overall picture that emerges is of a society which still
maintains an ambivalent attitude to the English language, but one in
which the language operates as an important touchstone for a range of
modern social, cultural and political issues. A number of the chapters
draw out a dichotomous picture of English language related issues.
Yamagami and Tollefson (Chapter 1), for example, contrast different
types of globalization existing within the public discourse – a concept
of ‘globalization-as-opportunity’ and of ‘globalization-as-threat’ – and
their research suggests that these two opposing views coexist. Both
Matsuda (Chapter 2) and Kubota (Chapter 5) illustrate ways in which
popular discourses of English as an international language can be
in conflict with the sociolinguistic realities of the role that English, and
other foreign languages, play within society. In part this is doubtless
a result of the broad conceptual area which ‘globalization’ occupies.
As a word with zeitgeist credentials it is used extensively, and often
without great discrimination. On the other hand, the changes that are
10
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English in Japan in the Era of Globalization

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